Chapter 61 61. Chapter
Elijah
The air in the great hall was heavy with unspoken words and smoldering magic. Donovan stood at the far end of the room, checking his weapons one by one, but I could feel that every nerve in his body was focused on us. Aurora sat near the fireplace. The fire painted her face in gold and deep red, and I could not stop myself from reaching for her.
I stepped closer and placed my hand on her shoulder as if it meant nothing. Aurora leaned her head back instinctively, our eyes met, and for a moment the world around us disappeared. My fingers traced the curve of her neck, right where her pulse still beat faster when I touched her. This was not a simple gesture between allies. It was possession and intimacy. Our bodies remembered the night, and our skin still carried the scent of the other.
Aurora sighed softly, and her hand slid to mine on its own. Her fingers intertwined with mine. For one brief second, we forgot that we were not alone.
“Enough!” Donovan’s voice exploded across the hall like a whip.
I looked up sharply. He stood rigid, his eyes glowing dark with anger, his gaze moving back and forth between Aurora and me. His dampir senses did not lie to him. He saw the tension in our movements, the kind only flesh and desire leave behind. He saw his sister’s flushed face. And he saw on me that shameless, ruling satisfaction I neither could nor wanted to hide.
“You filthy bastard,” Donovan hissed, and from deep in his voice came the low rumble of earth. “I thought you were protecting her. I thought you were my friend, Elijah. But you just used her weakness. You defiled her.”
“Watch your words, Donovan,” I said as I stepped away from Aurora, my body already shifting into combat. “Aurora is not a puppet, and she does not belong to you. What happened between us was her choice as much as mine. And the blood bond only strengthened what was already there.”
“She is my sister!” he roared, and in that instant, hell broke loose.
Donovan did not hesitate. A tongue of fire burst from his hand as the floor beneath his feet cracked. He charged at me with a speed only a dampir could reach. I answered with my own, using the speed of a Ruler to evade his strike and slam my shoulder into him, sending him back.
“I will kill you!” he shouted, and now he called on water as well. The wine from a nearby jug exploded upward, freezing into sharp shards of ice that shot toward me like arrows.
“Donovan, stop!” Aurora cried out, but neither of us heard her anymore.
Rage clouded my mind. I forgot he was my friend. I forgot he was my ally. He was just another male challenging my claim to the woman I had chosen. Donovan ripped a chunk of stone from the floor and hurled it at me. I caught his wrist in midair and slammed him against the wall. I went for his throat, my fangs flashing.
“Do not dare,” I growled into his face.
Then the air itself tore apart.
It was not a sound. It was a physical удар, a solid blow. An elemental force exploded from the center of the room, stronger than anything I had ever felt. The wind did not simply blow. It hit us like a massive wall.
Both of us were thrown across the hall and slammed into the opposite wall with such force that the air left our lungs. Old paintings and weapons crashed down around us. The invisible pressure pinned us there. Our feet did not touch the ground.
Aurora stood in the center of the hall.
Her eyes were no longer just dark. They burned with blinding white light. Her hair whipped wildly around her head. Around her body, not only wind howled, but small arcs of lightning snapped and danced. The fire in the fireplace surged high, and the floor trembled beneath her feet.
“ENOUGH!” she screamed, and her voice was no longer human. It was the voice of the storm itself. “I am not a prize for you to fight over. I am not a little girl who needs protection from herself!”
I looked at Donovan. He stared at his sister in shock. We both had thought we were the masters and she was the student. But in that moment, as we hung helpless against the wall, we understood the truth. We were nothing more than two sparks inside a raging wildfire.
“Aurora… let us down…” I forced out, feeling the pressure of the wind crush my ribs.
Slowly, she lowered her hand.
The pressure vanished. We dropped to the floor like broken dolls. Aurora was breathing hard. The light around her faded, and her eyes returned to their natural color. The fury drained away, replaced by exhaustion. But her authority remained.
“If you fight each other because of me one more time,” she said with icy calm, “I swear I will throw both of you out of this house into the middle of the swamp. Both of you.”
Donovan pushed himself up slowly and brushed the dust from his clothes. He looked at me. Hatred still burned in his eyes, but now there was something else too. Understanding. His sister was no longer the hidden girl the Clan had locked away.
“All right,” Donovan muttered, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “It seems you truly do not need protection anymore.”
I remained standing where I was, feeling the ache in my shoulder, watching Aurora. She was terrifying. Beautiful. Destructive. And in that moment, I knew the truth.
The war waiting for us would not be bloody because of me.
It would be bloody because of her.